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The Monster at the End of This Book
The Monster at the End of This Book was published in 1971 by Golden Press. It was written by Jon Stone and illustrated by Mike Smollin. __TOC__ In this book, Grover is horrified to learn that there is a monster at the end of the book and begs the reader not to finish it, so as to avoid the monster. He uses several methods to try and keep the reader from progressing, including tying the pages shut and cementing them together with bricks. After each page is turned, the results of the failed effort is shown, and Grover tries a new method to keep the reader from turning yet another page. To the amusement and relief of Grover, the monster at the end of the book turns out to be none other than himself, leaving the latter very embarrassed over what he had just went through. In its first year of publication, the book, which is one of the first to star Grover, sold two million copies. According to an internal Children's Television Workshop newsletter, "this figure, according to publishing sources, is an all-time one-year sales record for a single book."Children's Television Workshop Newsletter. Number 27, February 1, 1973. The book's style, with Grover speaking directly to the reader in comic book-style word balloons, was used in other 1970s and early 1980s Sesame books, including Grover and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum (1974), Oscar's Book (1975), Would You Like to Play Hide & Seek in This Book With Lovable, Furry Old Grover? (1976), Big Bird's Red Book (1977) and Lovable Furry Old Grover's Resting Places (1984). Sequels and variations A sequel, Another Monster at the End of This Book, was published in 1996. It was also written by Stone and illustrated by Smollin, and features Grover and Elmo as the other monster at the end of the book. A personalized version of the book was released in 2004 by Random House; purchasers could order the book with a personalized dedication page. In 2006, Random House published an "interactive" version of the book, Please Do Not Open this Book!, which included moving parts and flaps. On January 30, 2013, Sesame Street's official Twitter feed was taken over by Grover, who is told there's a monster at the end of the Twitter conversation, with a blacked out photo of Grover slowly being revealed with each tweet. The conversation included a shout-out from Grover to actor Wil Wheaton who retweeted and commented on the live-stream of tweets.'Sesame Street' and Grover Get Monster Win on Twitter The 2013 DVD Being Brave is framed with sequences of Grover trying to avoid the "Monster at the End of This Show." The onscreen title and ending text are based directly on those from the book. Some of Grover's dialogue is lifted straight from the original story, adapted by Christine Ferraro. Behind-the-scenes footage of the sequences being filmed was posted on the Sesame Family Robinson blog in July 2011. Anothermonster-lgb.jpg|''Another Monster at the End of This Book'' 2004ReissuePersonalizedCopyCoupon.jpg|Personalized version Book.pleasedonotopen.jpg|''Please Do Not Open this Book!'' Reissues Image:Monster1999jellybean.jpg|1999 Random House Jellybean Books ISBN 0375804013 Image:Monster2000boardbk.jpg|2000 Random House Big Bird's Favorites Board Books ISBN 0375805613 Image:Monster-end-of-book.jpg|2003 Random House A Little Golden Book ISBN 0307010856 Image:Monster2004biglgb.jpg|2004 Random House A Big Little Golden Book ISBN 037582913X Image:Monsterendofbookdvd.jpg|2009 Hinkler Books Story Vision ISBN 1741812224 Monster_at_the_end_of_this_book_kit.jpg|2017 Running Press mini book kit, packaged with a plush Grover backpack clip 50Years-MonsterBook.jpg|2019 SFI Readerlink Dist ISBN 0794440231 Animation and eBooks Image:Monster-end-book-dvd.jpg|DVD screenshot TheMonsterattheendofThisBookEbookscreenshot1.jpg|eBook screenshot TheMonsterattheendofThisBookEbookscreenshot2.jpg|eBook screenshot TheMonsterattheendofthisbookIpadversion2.jpg|iPad screenshot TheMonsterattheendofthisbookIpadversion4.jpg|iPad screenshot TheMonsterattheEndofThisBook2012KindleEdition.jpg|Kindle screenshot In 2009, Hinkler Books released the book with a StoryVision DVD adaptation of the book. Grover (Eric Jacobson) narrates the story as a child's hand (played by Edward Dix) turns the pages. Smollin's original art inspires the animation by Neil Goodridge. On December 7, 2009, Sesame Workshop released the book as an audio-enabled free eBook with highlights."Sesame Workshop Plans Children's E-Books", The Wall Street Journal. December 7, 2009. In 2010, iTunes released a special animated version of the book for iPad. Like the StoryVision DVD adaptation of the book from 2009, this version is once again narrated by Eric Jacobson as the voice of Grover. In 2012, Amazon Digital Services released a Kindle edition of the book. The book will be adapted into an animated special called The Monster at the End of This Story in 2020. Translations Image:Grovermonsterboek.jpg| The Netherlands Image:The monster at the end of this book hebrew.jpg| Israel Reviews ::''-- David Sornig, Wordsville Book Tweep, October 23, 2009'' References *In a 2010 appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Super Grover 2.0 jumped underneath Fallon's desk after seeing the title of the book, as "that book makes him very scared!" *Grover once Tweeted about a monster at the end of his tweet. *On January 30, 2013, Grover took over the Sesame Street Twitter account to tweet about "a Monster at the the end of this Twitter conversation." He pleaded with followers not to re-tweet or respond to the posts in fear of revealing the monster at the end. Grover even engaged with Wil Wheaton who retweeted and responded to several of the tweets. As with the original book, the monster at the end turned out to be Grover himself. (Tweets) Cultural references * The Johnny Bravo episode "The Hunk at the End of this Cartoon" parodies this book. * In a 2010 episode of The Electric Company, Lisa is seen reading a copy of the book to some kids. Sources External links * "Monster at End of Book Claims Life of TV's Grover", The Onion. June 2, 1999. * "The Triple Book Review", X-Entertainment. June 7, 2004. __NOWYSIWYG__ Category:Sesame Street Books Category:Little Golden Books Category:Grover Books Category:Jellybean Books Category:Big Bird's Favorites Category:Companion DVD Category:Running Press Category:Storybook Video